Shawn's Survey
Alien story for a user, comm'd on FA.
A cold chill lingered down Shawn's spine. Not the kind of chill you get from your blankets slipping off, leaving a cool breeze to find its way to your skin. Rather, it was the kind of chill you get when you're bare-backed to the concrete waking up in a darker room. A slow, horrified rhythm started coming from the human man's chest….this couldn't be real! One day you're walking to class with your tuition fees on your mind and the next morning. Here. Where was here, anyways? Shawn groaned softly, sitting up and rubbing his eyes as he tried to gather an answer to that internal question.
Sleek, white walls surrounded the short-haired brunette on all sides, save for one. As he twisted his head to get a good idea of what mess he'd awoken to, Shawn noticed a big black panel covering the majority of one of the walls. Strange…..it was a definitely different material than the others, being made out of a hard, dark texture. It was night and day compared to the general tiling of the walls, as they were small, almost square-shaped tiles coming together with barely a millimeter of clearance in the seams. His lithe body jerked in recoil when he realized what that meant, pondering– he was being watched. It didn't take a professional architect to realize that this was no doubt a monitoring room…..
“Hello?????" he said, hands cupped to his mouth so his voice could reverberate along the room and amplify itself. Shawn's eyes flicked immediately to the center of what he could only assume was a one-way mirror. No one in their right mind could be doing this to him…..but with the only thing replying being the cold, lifeless stare of the glass? Shawn decided to say his mind. “WHERE AM I!!! WHY AM I HERE?". The younger, mid-twenties male held some fear, of course, but in his mind he held some hope that this was just some misunderstanding! A mix up at the hospital, a—
“?????????? ????????????!!!", and more unintelligible yet harsh sounds rang out from the room. Shawn heard every weird, awful noise from every space around him, like the most damning 3d audio system ever created. He plugged his ears and tried to think about what he was possibly hearing, all before it stopped. Shawn was shook, but he was thankful whatever that was…...was gone! However, a loud BEEEEEP rang from the same system, before something Shawn could actually understand what he had just heard before.
“Hello human! We apologize, our translator happened to be off. We are a group of off-planet beings looking to do a small study into intergalactic points of sensitivity! As our human representative, you'll be going through a small examination before being sent back to Earth!" Although calmly spoken and quite convincing sounding, there were garbled bits of harsh words that poked through every now and then. Whatever it was, it had seemed to be actively connecting to something, changing something tangible. In all his life, he'd never heard a computer simulate a voice like that in such quality. The human boy was stunned, utterly. Not only were aliens real, given this was more than an elaborate prank, but they ran studies? It left one incredible, absurd question inside of the man's head that he couldn't help but hold back…..
“Was this because I signed the terms and conditions without reading them???" he huffed, face red and heart racing in his chest. Shawn was having the hardest time wrapping his head around the situation but….he couldn't feel that scared. Even if it was real, even if he was going to be participating in a sensitivity survey…he didn't seem to mind. This had to simply be a dream, Shawn thought while his face creeped up with a smile. This whole thing was silly, unrealistic, and surely couldn't happen! Then, a reply. A different voice.
“Yes. You humans click anything…". That was it! Shawn breathed a sigh of relief, this had to be a weird dream. Be it sleep deprivation getting to him and making him see things, some weird gas leak at worst, or some other form of lack of consciousness. Shawn's chest immediately dropped its defensiveness. This wasn't serious in the slightest! With a grin on his face, he nodded and looked into the black panel. Uttering a slight phrase under his breath, the human was suddenly eager? Maybe not quite that, but a lot less scared and more…ready to get this over with. These silly aliens needed to do their research, right? A shrug of the shoulders signaled whomever to begin…or maybe it was poor timing. Either way, the intercom sprung to life and Shawn could hear the words “Starting the test in three…..two….".
Immediately after “two", there was a whirring noise beginning to sound across the entire room, echoing off of the walls and filling Shawn's hearing with nothing but the movement of thousands of gears. In the reflection of the black screen, Shawn saw many of the square tiles in the room giving way. Hundreds of small, black, tubular holes sat behind the panels, their unveiling clashing with the sounds of the alleged alien behind the one-way mirror. The human's heart pounding in his chest with nervousness, but staying much more composed than earlier. He knew this was going to pass, it was just a dream! He might even wake up during it.
“One!" was uttered, the same voice as before mixed with another two, indicating that the aliens are definitely many if not very vocally talented. A research team would be understandably big….but what did they have in store for the human? He wondered the same, watching as those panels stopped and the holes he spotted earlier started making a new noise. Wet. Goopy. Something sounding like it was being pushed through a slimy tube and coming out towards him! Shawn saw one pipe out of the side of his vision give way to a bloated, pink tentacle. Looking like it was made out of transparent flesh and slime, the surprisingly well-holding appendage made its way towards the human. His brown hair shuffled as he staggered back, chest pounding once more. He could see more than just the one; he saw hundreds.
Tentacles of various sizes slipped through the pipes and started to quickly and sloppy find their way towards him. Some of the heavier ones slunk low to the ground, while smaller ones were able to find their way through the air and get to the human in a matter of seconds. Shawn had no time to stumble once more before a weird sensation gripped his arms. It was warm and active, like a hot boiling liquid but…it didn't burn. The pink goop slowly started to wrap itself around his arm, leaving a shiver down his spine. “H-Hey…that feels funny…" he tried to say, keeping a straight face. This was a sensitivity survey! He reminded himself of that as he felt another tentacle grip his ankles. Another at his ears. Two more for his other arm. Shawn was being enveloped by the sensations, but there was something amiss. They seemed unguided….
“Beginning phase one…" Shawn heard, his ears being teased by the feeling of the tentacle's texture. Defining it…it's like a hot non-newtonian fluid. As it touched him, it seemed to become hard; however, from a distance, it seemed to flow and shape itself like some sort of oily monster. Shawn dismissed this–it wasn't real anyways–and tried to keep himself in the same spot. Not moving around was the most difficult task as he could feel more…and more…and more tentacles coming up to him. “Now." Suddenly, the masses of individual tentacles backed off. What seemed like over two hundred slimy, pink appendages swarmed Shawn from all signs. His heart was pounding. “....General sensitivity!"
Without further ado, many slimy tools worked their way across his body, this time being more uniform. About thirty of them buzzed and pulsed across his chest, seemingly teeming with electricity. Almost like they were computers? He could feel them collecting data almost with each touch, prod, and move about his body. Slowly stroking up his bare chest and sending tingles through him. Meanwhile, his hands and feet had been the third targets, other dull and inactive tentacles gripping and holding Shawn in the air. With a jaded, almost pleased expression, the human could feel his ankles get surrounded by the warm, buzzing tentacles. Hands being forced to hold on as the fluids surrounding them seeped between the cracks of their fingers. It wasn't long until they started actually doing what they were supposed to.
To Shawn, it felt like each surface inch of his skin was being pressed into sporadically. He couldn't help but let out a small giggled as his chest was prodded. His toes were wiggled. His hands having an electric hum make it so he can do nothing but clasp onto the pink appendage. It felt odd…but now it made sense. They weren't surveying him conventionally– rather actually surveying his body! To the human this felt like a warm hug! Just…all over his body. Coaxing small murmurs out of him that he regarded as being recorded. Squishing his belly to feel how his breathing was working out while everything was still going on. They had a mission, and for minutes they seemed to just…observe him. Make Shawn feel odd, make him squirm, make him feel his sensitivity teeming on the surface of his skin!
“Phase two! Full body!". What? Shawn's mind raced, what could that mean? How was this not full body? He found out the hard way. All but a single digit amount of tentacles started to spiral around Shawn, encircling him like a vortex and threatening to swallow him whole. Though it was an empty threat, there was still a bit of truth behind it as they spread out, systematically coiling their way up his arms, legs, toes, chest, belly, hands, and everywhere– including his neck. A slimy tentacle compressing around his airways as he gasped, feeling it immediately let off. The aliens might have been aware of human anatomy– he probably wasn't the first to be here in this dream-summoned alien ship. Rather than a constricting like one might imagine from a snake, it instead left him feeling like he was wearing a well-fitted suit! Shawn almost smiled wide for a moment, the full-body hug sending shivers down his nervous system that only made him wiggle against the binding tentacles. Pink coiling around him and holding him in the air, making sure to cover everything and leave nothing. Of course, except for his head and mouth!
“How do you feel?" Shawn was asked, face red with a jaded expression.
“Doing good! I…it's like a big blanket. But actively hugging me instead…very warm…"
“Goooooood! It's supposed to feel like ??????????, so glad we got that effect down!". Shawn had 0 clue what ?????????? was, but he wouldn't mind having one after this odd dream. Those tentacles got a touch tighter and a few slipped up to his face. A fat, pink tentacle loomed over his face while others pulled his head into an upwards facing position. Shawn's heart pounded.
“Phase three! Biological assessment!" With those words joining the sounds of the constricting tentacles, that massive pink goop shoved itself into Shawn's open mouth. He gasped, feeling it inside of him and buzzing like all the other's…getting information. As a silver lining, the odd goop in his mouth felt sweet on the tongue like honey, even if it seemed to be electrically charged. The appendage positioned itself in a few different spots of Shawn's mouth, touching the cheeks on both sides and then gracefully sliding itself down the man's tongue. He could feel his hot breath building around the tentacle, touching the back of his throat before a small pop! The big pink monster of goop retracted swiftly, leaving Shawn to cough a few times as the rest of his body seemed to be released. The warmth flowing through his body still as he could barely catch his breath now.
“Thank you for participating in our small survey! You'll be returned to your planet in ??????? days! We hope to see you and your species again– what would you rate the experience?" With a pounding heart and a blushing face, Shawn laid on his back and raised up a hand with his fingers outspread. Carrying the same goo as had been toying with him, the fingers signaled a 5/5 to the dream-aliens…the exhaustion of the situation catching up to Shawn as he closed his eyes and rested…one final “Splendid! ???????????? ??????" coming from the intercom before he snored on the floor.